The volume contains original interpretative articles on Indian and Central Asian art and culture offering fresh insight into the study of the Asian culture. Central Asia came to be regarded as a place of great interest since an early time. It was the meeting place of various races and nations and proved or served as a channel for the interchange of many civilizations like those of Hellenized Asia, Persia or Iran, Sogdiana, China, etc. India has played a most distinctive role in shaping the cultural history of Central Asia. The antiquities discovered from different parts of Xinjiang including Dunhuang are of great archaeological and artistic significance. Most of the artifacts are fragile and fragmentary which add difficulties in identifying them. Dr P Banerjee, well known exponent of Indian and Central Asian art had studied these objects over the decades very closely. Some of his observations are published in this volume. Dr R Banerjee Sarkar (co-author) helped him providing parallel examples in support of the research. The present volume also included Dr. P Banerjee’s path breaking articles on Indian art and inscription. This is the third volume in the series of Indian and Central Asian art. Dr P Banerjee had identified more than 100 objects from India and Central Asia and they have been published in the above mentioned volumes and leading journals of the world. The present book will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in the field of Indian and central Asian art and culture which are complex in nature. The book will certainly give an extra dimension to the understanding of the cultural closeness among ancient and Central Asia.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR P. Banerjee
Dr. P. Baneree, born in 1920, obtained a First Class in the M.A. examination in Sanskrit with Epigraphy and Numismatics as special group in 1941 and Ph.D. Degree in History in 1950 from the Patna University, Patna. He joined a curatorial post in the Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta, in 1949; was appointed Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India in 1955 and Superintendent, in the Archaeological Survey of India, in charge of the Central Asian Antiquities Museum (containing Sir Aurel Stein Collection of Central Asian objects.) New Delhi (now a part of the National Museum, New Delhi) in 1957. Dr. Banerjee joined the National Museum, New Delhi in 1960, and had served this Institution for twenty years in various capacities as Editor, Assistant Director, Director, Member-Secretary, Art Purchase Committee, and lastly as Consultant, Central Asian Antiquities. Dr. Banerjee has visited almost all the important Museums in India and outside (in the U.S.S.R., Europe, and the U.S.A.) for the study of Indian, Central Asian and Far Eastern objects. He is a leading exponent of Indian Art and Religion as well as of Central Asian Buddhist Art and Iconography. He is the author of a large number of research articles and several important books including (i) The Way of the Buddha (Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi), (ii) Early Indian Religions (Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi), (iii) The Life of Krishna in Indian Art (National Museum, New Delhi) and (iv) The Blue God (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi) which have earned him international reputation as a scholar. He is a Vice-President of the All India Art Historians' Association and acts as an expert in various committees of the National Museum and Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR R. Banerjee Sarkar
Dr. R. Banerjee Sarkar, M.A., Ph.D. from Delhi University, is a scholar of Chinese and Central Asian Buddhist Art. She was the recipient of the UNESCO / Silk Route Fellowship (1996-97) and Chinese Govt. Fellowship (1993-95). Currently she is working as a Senior Research Officer and In Charge of the East Asian Programmed unit in the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. She is also the Executive Editor for the Inca's research journal Kalakalpa as well as the Indian Coordinator for the IDP, British Library, London. She is the author of several Research papers published in Encyclopedia of Indian Literature and Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Roop-Lekha and other journals. She has authored and edited books on Buddhism. In connection with her research work she has traveled extensively in China, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Chinese Turkestan), Mongolia, Iran, Japan, Thailand, USA, Canada and Europe.
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